Court of Appeal orders two retrials

The Court of Appeal has ordered two retrials in its October session. At the end of this session today, convicted murderer, twenty-one year old Tiffara Smith was granted a retrial. Smith was convicted in July of stabbing her brother, Dale Lino, to death in April of 2007. At the trial Smith claimed that on the day of the incident, she went home and saw the lock on her door broken and that some of her items were missing. She first said that she confronted Lino and then stabbed him. But Smith changed her story on the witness stand and said that when she told her brother about the missing items he laughed at her, followed her to her room and began to choke her. She also told the court that she stabbed Lino once to the chest in self defense. But on July ninth of this year a jury of twelve convicted the Corozal resident of murder and she was sentenced to life in prison. Today’s order for a retrial came after Smith’s attorney; Simeon Sampson successfully argued that the trial judge, Justice Herbert Lord, made an error. It is not yet certain if Smith’s retrial will take place in the next session of the Corozal Magistrate Court set to begin in December of this year. The first order for a retrial by the Appeal Court took place on Monday when Jose Hueso was granted a new trial. Hueso was convicted of two counts of Carnal Knowledge but again, his attorney, Orlando Fernandez convinced the Appeal Court judges that it was an error by trial judge, Herbert Lord that resulted in his client being convicted. The judges of the Court of Appeal agreed and Hueso was granted a retrial.